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The effects of musical training on verbal memory

Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, msfrankl{at}umich.edu

Katherine Sledge Moore

Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, mooreks{at}umich.edu

Chun-Yu Yip

Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, chunyuy{at}umich.edu

John Jonides

Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, jjonides{at}umich.edu

Katie Rattray

VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF NURSING, USA k.rattray{at}vanderbilt.edu

Jeff Moher

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, USA, jmoher{at}jhu.edu

A number of studies suggest a link between musical training and general cognitive abilities. Despite some positive results, there is disagreement about which abilities are improved. One line of research leads to the hypothesis that verbal abilities in general, and verbal memory in particular, are related to musical training. In the present article, we review this line of research and present newly collected data comparing trained musicians to non-musicians on a number of tasks that recruit verbal memory. The results showed an advantage for musicians' long-term verbal memory that disappeared when articulatory suppression was introduced. In addition, we found evidence for a greater verbal working memory span in musicians. Together, these results show that musical training may influence verbal working memory and long-term memory, and they suggest that these improved abilities are due to enhanced verbal rehearsal mechanisms in musicians.

Key Words: articulatory suppression • memory span • working memory

This version was published on July 1, 2008

Psychology of Music, Vol. 36, No. 3, 353-365 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0305735607086044


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